Saturday, September 11, 2004
Terrorism is a REaction
...Everywhere in the world, terrorism thrives within the illegitimate borders of occupation and dictatorship; it festers behind "security walls" put up by imperial powers; it crosses those borders and climbs over those fences to explode inside the countries responsible for, or complicit in, occupation and domination...
- Naomi Klein in The Guardian/UK, 10/09/04
- Naomi Klein in The Guardian/UK, 10/09/04
Friday, September 10, 2004
Small Government
...It has always seemed to me a bad idea to put a party full of people who are against government in principle in charge of running it. They just don't seem to do a very good job...
- Molly Ivins in The Daily Camera
- Molly Ivins in The Daily Camera
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Rape Rooms
We’ve probably heard enough about the hypocrisy of the US in supplying Saddam Hussein with weapons and then condemning him for actually using them. I’d like to point out another hypocrisy of our leaders — the condemnation of Saddam’s ‘rape rooms’ for intimidating female dissidents.
In 1973, elected Chilean President Salvador Allende was toppled in a CIA-backed coup, which installed viciously right-wing ‘General’ Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet’s torturers regularly raped women accused of being ‘communists’ as a means of intimidation, sometimes even encouraging police dogs to do it for them. Every member of the Bush, Blair and Howard administrations are old enough to know that this was happening, yet none of them seem prepared to acknowledge that it occurred or to condemn the US, British or Australian governments for implicitly condoning it.
Obviously, rape is OK when it “makes the world safe for Democracy!” Or it just that it is to be condemned only when it’s necessary to gain women’s support for dodgy imperialist policies?
In 1973, elected Chilean President Salvador Allende was toppled in a CIA-backed coup, which installed viciously right-wing ‘General’ Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet’s torturers regularly raped women accused of being ‘communists’ as a means of intimidation, sometimes even encouraging police dogs to do it for them. Every member of the Bush, Blair and Howard administrations are old enough to know that this was happening, yet none of them seem prepared to acknowledge that it occurred or to condemn the US, British or Australian governments for implicitly condoning it.
Obviously, rape is OK when it “makes the world safe for Democracy!” Or it just that it is to be condemned only when it’s necessary to gain women’s support for dodgy imperialist policies?
Monday, September 06, 2004
Anti-Semitism in New Zealand?
[Recently several Jewish graves were desecrated in New Zealand. At the same time the New Zealand government was holding two Mossad spies for passport fraud. Inevitably, some in the Jewish communities of New Zealand AND Australia connected the two events, making 2 + 2 = 5]
Either a very silly man, or a manipulative fearmonger — those are the only two phrases to describe the representative of New Zealand Jewry who attempted to link the smashing of Jewish tombstones in a NZ cemetery to the arrest of two supposed Mossad agents for passport fraud (“An attack on Israel today is an attack on Jews tomorrow”).
These two guys were convicted of attempting to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports for illegal use! What was the NZ Government supposed to do? Was it to say, “Oh these guys are Israelis … we should let them do as they wish because we ‘owe’ their grandfathers for their sufferings sixty years ago?” Or was Helen Clark supposed to do nothing because these guys were operating in accordance with a “higher law” — just like George W and Osama bin Laden?
Surely that NZ Government has every right to protect the security of its passport system AND THE DUTY to come down hard on those who desecrate any religious symbol whatsoever.
Maybe we should remind our Kiwi friends that the very same cretins who smash a Jewish tombstone today will throw Molotov Cocktails into a mosque tomorrow — or paint swastikas on the grave of Eddie Mabo the day after! [Eddie Mabo was an Australian Aboriginal, who established the right of Australia's native peoples to their land. Right-wing louts painted swastikas on his grave recently]
These two guys were convicted of attempting to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports for illegal use! What was the NZ Government supposed to do? Was it to say, “Oh these guys are Israelis … we should let them do as they wish because we ‘owe’ their grandfathers for their sufferings sixty years ago?” Or was Helen Clark supposed to do nothing because these guys were operating in accordance with a “higher law” — just like George W and Osama bin Laden?
Surely that NZ Government has every right to protect the security of its passport system AND THE DUTY to come down hard on those who desecrate any religious symbol whatsoever.
Maybe we should remind our Kiwi friends that the very same cretins who smash a Jewish tombstone today will throw Molotov Cocktails into a mosque tomorrow — or paint swastikas on the grave of Eddie Mabo the day after! [Eddie Mabo was an Australian Aboriginal, who established the right of Australia's native peoples to their land. Right-wing louts painted swastikas on his grave recently]
